Andreas Wiemann sets goal after making West Brom loan switch

The 32-year-old was confirmed as Carlos Corberan’s first January recruit this week after checking in from Bristol City, where he was club captain.

Austrian Weimann was in the final year of his deal at Ashton Gate and was close to triggering a further 12 months via an appearance clause. Liam Manning’s Robins decided against taking up that option and the frontman was made available.

The former Villa and Wolves forward could make his Baggies bow at Norwich today and knows it is up to him to impress between now and May as he plots the next steps in a career, which started with a senior Villa debut in 2010.

“There was a clause in my contract which I think the club (Bristol City) didn’t want to trigger but I have been around long enough to know that that’s football,” said Weimann.

“I am excited to be here now. It is until the end of the season and I guess it is down to me to show what I can do. Hopefully if it all goes well we can extend it but for now until the end of the season I just want to show what I can do and we go from there.

“It is in my hands. If I don’t play well then I can’t expect to get offered a contract. If I perform and if it works we will see what happens. For now I am ready to get minutes and get started.”

Weimann rattled in an impressive 50 Championship goals in 204 league games for City in five-and-a-half years. He added: “If I perform and if it works then we’ll see what happens at the end of the season, hopefully now I’ll get a few minutes against Norwich and get started.”

Baggies boss Corberan was well aware of the forward from clashes with the Robins while with Huddersfield and Albion but it was one particular quality of Weimann, his versatility, that really piqued the Spaniard’s interest.

The head coach said: “When this opportunity appeared I was analysing him as a player, one player I know, as we played against Bristol a lot of times and was at this club a lot (long time).

“Something that surprised me in him the last year when we played with them was his versatility, because he was playing right wing-back, left wing-back, striker, false striker, number 10 and winger – one player who can cover you lots of possibilities.

“In my mind I wanted to have two players, one to cover different positions and one specific in one position (winger) – with him we covered some positions but I know he’s a player that the closer he is to the goal the more impact he can do.

“The more central he plays, the better to use him in terms of his skill, the main skill is his movement to the box, when you play him as a number 10 you are playing with two strikers on the pitch, because he likes to arrive to the box, a very good instinct and timing to arrive to the box and a very good finishing, so he’s one player that can help us to finish our attacks with more players in the box.”

While Weimann checked in at The Hawthorns, Albion academy graduate Taylor Gardner-Hickman made his Ashton Gate loan move permanent in a separate move simultaneously negotiated. It ended 15 years at the club for the 22-year-old midfielder.

“At the beginning of the season Gardner was one player that needed the loan,” Corberan said. “He needed to play, for him and us as a club we needed to give him minutes.

“After we evaluated the previous season, I evaluated the option to add (Alex) Mowatt to the team, I was thinking that the best to develop him as a player was with the loan.

“The loan that appeared was from Bristol with the option to buy, in this case it was an option depending on what Bristol wanted to take or not.

“We didn’t have Gardner for this season and we could have lost Gardner now or the summer – or maybe they would make the decision not to buy him.

“We needed to have two players and with this possibility is one player, Andi, that adapts well to the needs that we have. In terms of West Bromwich I think we covered some needs we have, in terms of Bristol I don’t know.”